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mindsplintersWorld: Kingdom
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1159
Circumstance: Written at Panera
"Close the door. Close the goddamn door!"
Alex threw his weight against the steel door, digging his heels in to keep it reluctantly shut as Loni added a gust of wind to bolster the move. Reddel slipped up beside him and he felt the door grow warm as the other young man sealed it with fire, melting the edges. Finally, he yelped at the transferred heat and drew away. He stared at the door in wonder. "Wow," he murmured.
"Good, good." Tasha looked up from where she had collapsed on the floor and offered all three a warm if pained grin. Her right hand never shifted from her upper left arm even as she tried to rearrange herself. Alex watched with horrified fascination as he noticed the red stains, blood pumping upwards and slipping from between her tightly compressed fingers. Tasha noticed his gaze and grimaced. "It's nothing. Don't worry about it," she ordered. Then she smiled again. "Good job on that door, though. It should hold for a while, right, Reddel?"
The fire user nodded with a faint smile of his own. Exhaustion rolled off him in waves and Alex had to resist the urge to drag the much slighter boy away and put him down to rest. He shoved his hands into his pockets and stared at the floor for a moment until he heard Reddel move away on his own. Looking up, he saw him settling down beside Tasha. He looked over to lock eyes with Loni. "So," he began slowly, "who let the dogs out, huh?"
"... Alex, you make another joke like that and I'll kill you myself."
Tasha's tart response sent an unexpected swell of relief through him and he shrugged off wondering why that was. He simply grinned at her. "Yes, ma'am," he answered. "Should we do anything else or just trust to that seal thing?"
"Rest." Tasha leaned back against a stack of boxes and Reddel hesitantly put his real hand behind her to ease the transfer. She spared him a fleeting look of amusement, tinged with affection. "Sit your butts down and rest," she continued, turning her attention back to the two standing Guardians. "It won't hold forever and we'll need you all fresh and ready. I'm an old lady, remember? I need you guys to protect my ass."
"Tasha, that's so not true!" Loni pouted and moved to crouch beside the Healer.
Tasha met her gaze without shame. "Compared to you three, yeah," she pointed out. "Besides I kind of feel about one hundred now." She sighed and tilted her head back to rest against the boxes, strange eyes closing. "I need to concentrate for a bit now, okay? Think you can keep it down and stay out of trouble?" She opened one eye suddenly and Alex caught amusement there. "If I don't say anything in a half hour, tell Dusty he can have my Errol Flynn movies."
That drew Alex up short and he stared at her in confusion. He glanced at Loni and Reddel to see if they understood her meaning. Both of them shook their heads slightly. Reddel shifted a bit closer and tilted his own head back before closing his eyes. There was no loosening of his posture, though, and Alex suddenly realized that the Hunter was listening to Tasha's breathing patterns.
"She's using her blood thing, right? She's going to be okay, isn't she?"
He looked to his right in surprise; he hadn't even seen Loni move to leave Tasha's side. Worry and hope warred on the pretty girl's face, clear even through the dragon scales that showed her totem. Without thinking, he extended an arm to settle around her shoulders and draw her against his side. "Yeah," he whispered. "She'll be fine. It's not like those daemon dog things got her that hard. It's Tasha. Only something like, I dunno, a giant possessed whale is gonna take her out."
That brought a faint smile to Loni's face and she impulsively turned to throw her arms around him for a desperate hug. Without a word, he wrapped his own strong arms around her curvy frame and held her back. "So she's just going to rest up and then we'll go looking for the others," she murmured.
"Totally." Alex again looked in the direction of the two sitting Hunters and, unseen by Loni now, he frowned a bit. Tasha really was looking pale under her faint tan and she did not seem to be breathing very deeply at all. The sheen of wet blood still coated her fingers. He shook his head slightly and gave Loni another quick squeeze. "Totally," he repeated. "I bet they're somewhere holed up, too, safe as anything. I wonder if they all managed to stay together. Maybe. Or maybe Dusty and Mara split up and they each grabbed some of the others. That'd be good, too." Even as he rambled, letting his tongue take the lead as he tried to switch off the worrying notions that had started to appear in his quiet subconscious, he led Loni towards another tower of boxes. He helped her sit, offering her a big cheesy grin. "Y'know, like, I bet Dusty would grab Jane and Brian. He likes 'em both and he knows he'd have to answer to Tasha if they got messed up, right? Maybe Clover, too. Then Mara probably has, um, Val and Lynn and Reed. Deon could have gone with Irv and Walker and Paris maybe."
Loni made a slight noise almost like a giggle and he eased himself down beside her. He put his arm around her once more and felt relief as she snuggled into his broad shoulder. He felt the puff of her breath against his neck. Closing his eyes, he tilted his head back against the boxes and continued, "Yeah, I can see that. That'd be the, y'know, manly team. Can you picture Deon and Paris trying to both do the orders thing? Frickin' funny. Mara's team would be cool, though. No problems with who's boss. It's Mara. Like who's gonna say no to her? Deon told me once she's like that all the time."
"All the time?" Loni's voice dropped in volume and clarity and he twisted his head to look down at the top of her head. She seemed calm, though, and not in pain so he merely grinned and rubbed her shoulder a bit with one hand.
"Oh, yeah. And she acts all righteous that Dusty moved out because of the squeaking bedsprings! Funny, right? I'm telling you, hot stuff. The Fortress is noisy as hell. I've only been living there a week and there's no sleeping anywhere."
Loni yawned into his shoulder. "You're being rude," she informed him with a sleepy giggle.
"Me?" Alex laughed under his breath. "No way. Rude is everything else. I thought us football players were bad with the cheerleaders." He risked tilting his head to press against her hair, neatly avoiding a horn. "Deon and Mara are totally locked in a state of foreplay and I bet Lynn regularly holds Reed down and molests him."
"Dusty and Tasha?"
Alex lifted his head again and stared at where the Healer sat motionless. "Eye sex," he finally announced quietly to her as if sharing a great secret truth. "Tasha's not okay with groping but, damn, total eye sex when they look at each other."
Another yawn greeted his explanation and Loni slipped down further against his solid form. Her eyes were closed, muscles going slack and sleepy as the backwash after-effects of the adrenaline rush hit her. "Shush," she whispered vaguely. "Don't ruin the romance." With that, Alex felt her go even looser against him and he looked down to see sleep take over his friend.
Ever so carefully, he shifted her from his shoulder and eased her to the floor. Then he stripped off his varsity jacket, scowling absently at the tears before wadding it up and tucking it beneath Loni's head. Gently, he smoothed her hair back. With her asleep, he relaxed. It felt like something weird had been going on and his body hummed with the same tension he felt before a big meet. He could not figure it out and so had just talked and talked until it went away. It came back the moment the words stopped, though. He watched a shiver hit Loni then and neatly stripped off his hoodie. That was right; they were on cold concrete. With exaggerated care, he draped the hoodie over her.
Then he stood and stretched until he felt the vertebrae crack, each in succession. Reaching up, he ran both hands through his dust-streaked hair. His fingers came away with a bit of blood and he stared at it in confusion. "Huh," he murmured. "Don't remember getting a whack like that. Oh, well." He attempted to shake his head and felt an immediate wave of nausea. "Whoa. Don't do that, Alex," he said to himself. When the blackness and the stars receded, he looked towards Reddel and Tasha.
They were unmoving and the sickness rolled back up his throat. Silently, he made his way towards them and crouched on Tasha's other side. "Psst. Hey. Hey, Reddel?" Bleary eyes opened and met his. Alex tried for a grin. "You okay, man?" Reddel nodded slowly after a moment's consideration. "... And her?"
A long pause greeted his question and then, with a tight look of almost-fear, Reddel touched Tasha's shoulder. There was no response and he pushed harder. She slipped slightly towards Alex in unresisting motion. He caught her neatly and watched in horror as her hand slid away from her upper arm to reveal lingering trickles of free-flowing blood. He choked and started to give her a shake. "Tasha," he hissed. "Tasha, wake up."
Reddel's hand on his shoulder stopped him and he made his own hands hold still. He held his breath, staring at the paleness of Tasha's face and the eerie stillness of her. He shook as he reached up to touch the side of her neck in instinctive mimicry of coaches and paramedics and Tasha herself. He kept his eyes locked on Reddel's rapidly crumbling face.
This was not supposed to happen. Not to them. They were superheroes. They were invincible. Nothing could touch them. Ever.
What were they going to tell Dusty?
Then he felt the barest flicker beneath his fingers and Alex felt his eyes burn. He dropped his head to rest his forehead against Tasha's shoulder and blindly reached for Reddel's hand to press it to her neck. He barely registered as the other young man counted before pulling away and beginning to rip at the bottom of his t-shirt, making bandages for Tasha's wound. All he knew was that this was not supposed to happen and yet...
They really could die and there was nothing they could do about it.
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1159
Circumstance: Written at Panera
"Close the door. Close the goddamn door!"
Alex threw his weight against the steel door, digging his heels in to keep it reluctantly shut as Loni added a gust of wind to bolster the move. Reddel slipped up beside him and he felt the door grow warm as the other young man sealed it with fire, melting the edges. Finally, he yelped at the transferred heat and drew away. He stared at the door in wonder. "Wow," he murmured.
"Good, good." Tasha looked up from where she had collapsed on the floor and offered all three a warm if pained grin. Her right hand never shifted from her upper left arm even as she tried to rearrange herself. Alex watched with horrified fascination as he noticed the red stains, blood pumping upwards and slipping from between her tightly compressed fingers. Tasha noticed his gaze and grimaced. "It's nothing. Don't worry about it," she ordered. Then she smiled again. "Good job on that door, though. It should hold for a while, right, Reddel?"
The fire user nodded with a faint smile of his own. Exhaustion rolled off him in waves and Alex had to resist the urge to drag the much slighter boy away and put him down to rest. He shoved his hands into his pockets and stared at the floor for a moment until he heard Reddel move away on his own. Looking up, he saw him settling down beside Tasha. He looked over to lock eyes with Loni. "So," he began slowly, "who let the dogs out, huh?"
"... Alex, you make another joke like that and I'll kill you myself."
Tasha's tart response sent an unexpected swell of relief through him and he shrugged off wondering why that was. He simply grinned at her. "Yes, ma'am," he answered. "Should we do anything else or just trust to that seal thing?"
"Rest." Tasha leaned back against a stack of boxes and Reddel hesitantly put his real hand behind her to ease the transfer. She spared him a fleeting look of amusement, tinged with affection. "Sit your butts down and rest," she continued, turning her attention back to the two standing Guardians. "It won't hold forever and we'll need you all fresh and ready. I'm an old lady, remember? I need you guys to protect my ass."
"Tasha, that's so not true!" Loni pouted and moved to crouch beside the Healer.
Tasha met her gaze without shame. "Compared to you three, yeah," she pointed out. "Besides I kind of feel about one hundred now." She sighed and tilted her head back to rest against the boxes, strange eyes closing. "I need to concentrate for a bit now, okay? Think you can keep it down and stay out of trouble?" She opened one eye suddenly and Alex caught amusement there. "If I don't say anything in a half hour, tell Dusty he can have my Errol Flynn movies."
That drew Alex up short and he stared at her in confusion. He glanced at Loni and Reddel to see if they understood her meaning. Both of them shook their heads slightly. Reddel shifted a bit closer and tilted his own head back before closing his eyes. There was no loosening of his posture, though, and Alex suddenly realized that the Hunter was listening to Tasha's breathing patterns.
"She's using her blood thing, right? She's going to be okay, isn't she?"
He looked to his right in surprise; he hadn't even seen Loni move to leave Tasha's side. Worry and hope warred on the pretty girl's face, clear even through the dragon scales that showed her totem. Without thinking, he extended an arm to settle around her shoulders and draw her against his side. "Yeah," he whispered. "She'll be fine. It's not like those daemon dog things got her that hard. It's Tasha. Only something like, I dunno, a giant possessed whale is gonna take her out."
That brought a faint smile to Loni's face and she impulsively turned to throw her arms around him for a desperate hug. Without a word, he wrapped his own strong arms around her curvy frame and held her back. "So she's just going to rest up and then we'll go looking for the others," she murmured.
"Totally." Alex again looked in the direction of the two sitting Hunters and, unseen by Loni now, he frowned a bit. Tasha really was looking pale under her faint tan and she did not seem to be breathing very deeply at all. The sheen of wet blood still coated her fingers. He shook his head slightly and gave Loni another quick squeeze. "Totally," he repeated. "I bet they're somewhere holed up, too, safe as anything. I wonder if they all managed to stay together. Maybe. Or maybe Dusty and Mara split up and they each grabbed some of the others. That'd be good, too." Even as he rambled, letting his tongue take the lead as he tried to switch off the worrying notions that had started to appear in his quiet subconscious, he led Loni towards another tower of boxes. He helped her sit, offering her a big cheesy grin. "Y'know, like, I bet Dusty would grab Jane and Brian. He likes 'em both and he knows he'd have to answer to Tasha if they got messed up, right? Maybe Clover, too. Then Mara probably has, um, Val and Lynn and Reed. Deon could have gone with Irv and Walker and Paris maybe."
Loni made a slight noise almost like a giggle and he eased himself down beside her. He put his arm around her once more and felt relief as she snuggled into his broad shoulder. He felt the puff of her breath against his neck. Closing his eyes, he tilted his head back against the boxes and continued, "Yeah, I can see that. That'd be the, y'know, manly team. Can you picture Deon and Paris trying to both do the orders thing? Frickin' funny. Mara's team would be cool, though. No problems with who's boss. It's Mara. Like who's gonna say no to her? Deon told me once she's like that all the time."
"All the time?" Loni's voice dropped in volume and clarity and he twisted his head to look down at the top of her head. She seemed calm, though, and not in pain so he merely grinned and rubbed her shoulder a bit with one hand.
"Oh, yeah. And she acts all righteous that Dusty moved out because of the squeaking bedsprings! Funny, right? I'm telling you, hot stuff. The Fortress is noisy as hell. I've only been living there a week and there's no sleeping anywhere."
Loni yawned into his shoulder. "You're being rude," she informed him with a sleepy giggle.
"Me?" Alex laughed under his breath. "No way. Rude is everything else. I thought us football players were bad with the cheerleaders." He risked tilting his head to press against her hair, neatly avoiding a horn. "Deon and Mara are totally locked in a state of foreplay and I bet Lynn regularly holds Reed down and molests him."
"Dusty and Tasha?"
Alex lifted his head again and stared at where the Healer sat motionless. "Eye sex," he finally announced quietly to her as if sharing a great secret truth. "Tasha's not okay with groping but, damn, total eye sex when they look at each other."
Another yawn greeted his explanation and Loni slipped down further against his solid form. Her eyes were closed, muscles going slack and sleepy as the backwash after-effects of the adrenaline rush hit her. "Shush," she whispered vaguely. "Don't ruin the romance." With that, Alex felt her go even looser against him and he looked down to see sleep take over his friend.
Ever so carefully, he shifted her from his shoulder and eased her to the floor. Then he stripped off his varsity jacket, scowling absently at the tears before wadding it up and tucking it beneath Loni's head. Gently, he smoothed her hair back. With her asleep, he relaxed. It felt like something weird had been going on and his body hummed with the same tension he felt before a big meet. He could not figure it out and so had just talked and talked until it went away. It came back the moment the words stopped, though. He watched a shiver hit Loni then and neatly stripped off his hoodie. That was right; they were on cold concrete. With exaggerated care, he draped the hoodie over her.
Then he stood and stretched until he felt the vertebrae crack, each in succession. Reaching up, he ran both hands through his dust-streaked hair. His fingers came away with a bit of blood and he stared at it in confusion. "Huh," he murmured. "Don't remember getting a whack like that. Oh, well." He attempted to shake his head and felt an immediate wave of nausea. "Whoa. Don't do that, Alex," he said to himself. When the blackness and the stars receded, he looked towards Reddel and Tasha.
They were unmoving and the sickness rolled back up his throat. Silently, he made his way towards them and crouched on Tasha's other side. "Psst. Hey. Hey, Reddel?" Bleary eyes opened and met his. Alex tried for a grin. "You okay, man?" Reddel nodded slowly after a moment's consideration. "... And her?"
A long pause greeted his question and then, with a tight look of almost-fear, Reddel touched Tasha's shoulder. There was no response and he pushed harder. She slipped slightly towards Alex in unresisting motion. He caught her neatly and watched in horror as her hand slid away from her upper arm to reveal lingering trickles of free-flowing blood. He choked and started to give her a shake. "Tasha," he hissed. "Tasha, wake up."
Reddel's hand on his shoulder stopped him and he made his own hands hold still. He held his breath, staring at the paleness of Tasha's face and the eerie stillness of her. He shook as he reached up to touch the side of her neck in instinctive mimicry of coaches and paramedics and Tasha herself. He kept his eyes locked on Reddel's rapidly crumbling face.
This was not supposed to happen. Not to them. They were superheroes. They were invincible. Nothing could touch them. Ever.
What were they going to tell Dusty?
Then he felt the barest flicker beneath his fingers and Alex felt his eyes burn. He dropped his head to rest his forehead against Tasha's shoulder and blindly reached for Reddel's hand to press it to her neck. He barely registered as the other young man counted before pulling away and beginning to rip at the bottom of his t-shirt, making bandages for Tasha's wound. All he knew was that this was not supposed to happen and yet...
They really could die and there was nothing they could do about it.
